Apple Core Solo to Core Duo upgrade.

[mhunter]

Hello Fugger,

Did you ever get a chance to try the 1.5 CoreSolo in a PC board to see if the second core fired-up?

Just thought I would ask. It would be interesting to find out if the second core is disabled in the CPU itself, or somewhere in the Apple firmware / OS.

[Charles Wirth]

Yep, its a solo core the core is diabled.

We compared it to a few other chips in this thread.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=92161

It does seem to be of a duo spec

[antipop]

Can you post a pic of how they broke donw?

As for dothan, wouldn't that need a firmware update?

[mhunter]

Yep, its a solo core the core is diabled.

We compared it to a few other chips in this thread.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=92161

It does seem to be of a duo spec

How unfortunate

It's too bad they disabled it in the chip itself. This must be something they're doing special for Apple. Since it's not listed in their shipping products, it must be a custom job for Apple.

[masri]

Fugger,

Thanks for posting such a thorough review of your upgrade process. I have a friend that wants an Intel Mac mini as a HTPC (Home Theatre PC). His goal is to play 1080p video on it to his TV.

I went to a local Apple Store, and tried various tests of 1080p video playback. I found that only the high end multicore PowerMac G5 could handle the playback; the Intel machines (iMac, mini, MacBook Pro) weren't fast enough to play back w/no studdering video.

Could you try a test for me? Please go to this page at Apple.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/

Try playing "IMAX Deep Sea 3D" in 1080p (the fish). On the Core Duo mini at the Apple Store, this video would studder shortly after the Warner Bros. logo. There's a scene with a ton of little fish all turning in unison, and the light shimmers off the surface of them; I'm thinking the bitrate on this shot is just too high (perhaps it couldn't be compressed because of so many things changing at once), but I can't figure out what the problem is. I figure it could be the CPU can't decode the video fast enough (maybe yours can), or perhaps the use of system RAM instead of VRAM just puts too much strain on the system bus? Not sure what's wrong here. The sales guy at the Apple Store was interested in my questions, so he pushed a tech in the back to upgrade the machine from 512MB to 1GB RAM. I was thinking maybe too much RAM was taken up as VRAM, forcing a VM swap; the upgrade made no difference. We then tried saving the video to a FireWire LaCie HD, thinking perhaps the HD speed of the laptop drive in the mini was too slow to read the movie fast enough, but that didn't fix it either. So, those two plausible reasons for poor playback weren't the culprit. The rest of this trailer plays fine on the mini. I did this test on a Dual Core mini 512MB & 1GB models (2 different machines); no difference, same studdering problem. I then tested on a 17" iMac Intel Core Duo (1.83GHz) w/1GB RAM; the studdering was less pronounced but still there. I then tested on a 20" iMac Intel Core Duo (2GHz) w/1GB RAM; now the studdering was gone. Since both iMacs have the same system bus speed and graphics (both had 128MB VRAM), that leads me to believe this could well be a CPU speed issue.

If you could also try Warren Miller's "Higher Ground" (the skier) in 1080p, that one was glitching on all the Intel Macs at the store. Only the PowerMac dual core could keep up. I'm not sure if that's thanks to the higher CPU speed, Altivec (which from what I've read is faster than Intel's vector routines), or a better graphics card on the PowerMac.

These would be excellent tests, but for bonus points (and I'm sure the forum would appreciate knowing), please let us know how decoding 1080p video affects temperature. If you save one of these trailers to your HD, and just set QuickTime Player to keep playing it over & over, then we could see if the CPU gets too hot after 15 mins, 30 mins, or 1hr. If you put your hand on the back and feel hot or cold air coming out, that would be quite telling. If you could give actual temperatures, even better. If you have any thoughts on how to keep the CPU cool in this kind of environment, that would be useful too.

Thanks very much for your time.

- Adam

[Charles Wirth]

Ive played most of the HD trailers and they look aweseome. I was impressed by the image quality of the HD trailers.

I have an HD display and watched several movies so far. Flawless dashboard, very smooth and responsive.

[masri]

Wow, this is great news that your machine could handle the 1080p trailers w/no problem. How about heat? Are you noticing any problem with the mini getting hot after playing the trailers for a time?

- Adam

[mike]

just found the XP on Mac contest - seems like someone just won it
http://onmac.net/

Time to make a reverse approach - mac OS on PC clone

[antipop]

masri, there has several test on the internet and the imac and the mini dual core can read 1080p perfectly, I don't know how it has been setup at your apple store but i've many review about this and they all seem to agree.

BTW who needs 1080p except for watching trailers ? Until it becomes widely available, i'd be on my third computer.

mikeguava, i think you're not aware of the OSX86 Project just query for it

[masri]

masri, there has several test on the internet and the imac and the mini dual core can read 1080p perfectly, I don't know how it has been setup at your apple store but i've many review about this and they all seem to agree.

The movie trailers Apple has at their Website here

http://www.apple.com/trailers/

list 1080p. But they aren't. Try downloading one, and Get Info in QuickTime Player. You'll see that they're usually around 800pix high, not 1080. I believe this is a bit false on Apple's part, and I was rather surprised to see them do that. The only true 1080p video that's easy to get to is the video here.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/

I believe most people who say 1080p is fine didn't realize this, and were just reporting that the movie trailers played ok.

BTW who needs 1080p except for watching trailers ? Until it becomes widely available, i'd be on my third computer.

True. I believe he was trying to buy a machine today that would be relatively future proof for the next 5 years; as 1080p video comes online & is standard, he wanted a machine that would continue to be able to handle the load.

- Adam

[antipop]

I'm really not sure you can find a computer today that is future proof, specially for HD and on a 500$ machine

[IYP]

fugger, install windows on this beast ( http://onmac.net/ ) and get us some pi numbers pronto


and if your feelin really nice compare it to PC hardware core duo

[Haltech]

masri, there has several test on the internet and the imac and the mini dual core can read 1080p perfectly, I don't know how it has been setup at your apple store but i've many review about this and they all seem to agree.

BTW who needs 1080p except for watching trailers ? Until it becomes widely available, i'd be on my third computer.

mikeguava, i think you're not aware of the OSX86 Project just query for it

People like me who have a 42" 1080p LCD HDTV that natively displays the desktop at 1920X1080 @ 60hz... MediaPC = Cheap Upscaler to 1080 content.

[oktavius]

well sounds nice
how is the performance?

[Charles Wirth]

I was able to make the boot CD and pretty much went through all the steps but I cannot get the XOM to fire up correctly to give me choice of partition or boot from CD still.

[antipop]

I finally got my mac mini today, that i paired with a 20" WD Dell monitor, I must admit that it makes my PB run like a snail. Dammit apple, i now need a macbook.

I took the core solo with 1gb of ram. I runs perfectly fine 720p HD trailers at apple, but there is a lot of frame drop at 1080p. If i ever feel the need, i can always upgrade to a core duo later

[Frisch]

I just got back from the Apple store and had the opportunity to play with one. I'm very impressed and may consider buying one with the 23" Cinema HD display.

Their Screens are pure art, makes the pc screens look like ....

Edit :
No, i'm not booting up on a mac, just secretly admiring it's style

[[XC] moddolicous]

I finally got my mac mini today, that i paired with a 20" WD Dell monitor, I must admit that it makes my PB run like a snail. Dammit apple, i now need a macbook.

I took the core solo with 1gb of ram. I runs perfectly fine 720p HD trailers at apple, but there is a lot of frame drop at 1080p. If i ever feel the need, i can always upgrade to a core duo later

Any chance of you runnin Rosetta on it?? Those comps are beasts at rosetta.

[IYP]

Any chance of you runnin Rosetta on it?? Those comps are beasts at rosetta.

another shameless plug

[Frisch]

another shameless plug

He has a thing for homeless cpu's.

[[XC] moddolicous]

Its not a shameless plug, if the comp stays on 24/7, why not make it do something?? You cant play games/ watch movies 24/7. Plus its for a good cause.

[antipop]

Any chance of you runnin Rosetta on it?? Those comps are beasts at rosetta.

I'm not sure i understand you, are you talking about the program that emulates a PPC? If so, i have a few soft using it and you feel that it goes much slower than a soft written for intel.

If it's something else, tell me about it. The mini will be running 24/7 and it won't be doing cpu-intensive tasks

[Vapor]

He means Rosetta@home

[[XC] moddolicous]

I'm not sure i understand you, are you talking about the program that emulates a PPC? If so, i have a few soft using it and you feel that it goes much slower than a soft written for intel.

If it's something else, tell me about it. The mini will be running 24/7 and it won't be doing cpu-intensive tasks

Yea, Vapor got it. Rosetta@Home. Head over to our part of this forum to read what its about or pm me. Sorry for the OT.

[Paul Stamatiou]

He means Rosetta@home

Hahah, I was confused for a while as well.